Projects: Kitchen and Dining Room

Growing up, it was not unusual for my dad to come home from work to see the living room rearranged or bedrooms rearranged. There was always something going on. If it wasn’t something happening inside it was probably happening outside. My mom always had a project going on somewhere.

My sister and I were always there right along side her (most of the time willingly). On a normal day, after we were through with school you would find us either reading and playing or working on something with our mom. Truthfully, it was often a combination of both.

Working alongside of my mom has given me the experience in (but not limited to) the following – painting walls (many many times), putting up wallpaper (taking down wallpaper), raising goats (milking goats and making goat cheese), raising chickens (butchering, plucking, and cleaning chickens), picking (and selling) pecans, working in the garden (canning produce from the garden)…for time’s sake, I’ll stop the list here. You get the gist.

Most of the time, I loved working and helping mom out with her projects. I just didn’t care for too many of the outdoor projects. Particularly, picking up twigs and sticks on our front two acres, you know, “to keep the snakes and ticks away”.

Well, as the saying goes – “Like mother, like daughter”. In our household, it is not unusual for L to come home from work to have something being done, worked on, or a project that is waiting for his expert craftsmanship. I love that he, like my dad, always just goes along with it.

The most current project I decided needed to be done was my kitchen. It was plain and…well, just boring. So, I told L what I wanted and together we have been working on a “new” look for our kitchen/dining room for the last few months.

I slapped some paint on the walls and he added some backsplash in our kitchen.

We knew we wanted a new dining table, one that could fit our ever growing family. We wanted a farm style look to it. We also…did not want to spend an arm and a leg.

This is what he built me.

He then decided that the light we had in our dining room didn’t quite go with our new decor…so he built some lighting that went much better with what we are doing in the kitchen/dining area.

I love it. (Now we are on the look-out for an old window to put on the big blank wall space you see.)

He also built a coffee bar (which also houses my cookbooks and bread machine very nicely).

And a nice little shelf to hold our k-cups and coffee mugs.

He was starting to have too much fun with this…from scrap pallet wood (the same pallet wood he used for the coffee bar shelf) and an old rusted ceiling tile…he made this

I also decided, in the midst of all this, to rearrange our sons’ bedroom…and give them each a little gallery wall. (Cheap frames at a thrift store + spray paint = easy cheap gallery wall) Since I want scripture to surround my children and my household, I have been making these with my phone using a photo app. They work in well with the gallery wall.

I’m already mentally working on ideas for Miss Priss’ room.

I don’t feel too incredibly bad though…something else I learned from my mom. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do things. Thrift stores, are awesome. Repurposing current items in your household, is awesome. Garage sale items, are awesome. Free stuff, is always awesome.

So, do you have a project on your mind???

These are my suggestions…

Have fun, be creative, spend minimal (if anything), and use Pinterest!